FRANCE: Despite attacks, ex-Riversider will stay in Paris

Former Riverside bossa nova singer Jules Day, 30, who now lives in Paris, said that people have been on edge in the French capital since Friday night, when terrorists fanned across the city, killing 129 people and wounding at least 350 at a concert hall, soccer stadium, cafes and other places.

Former Riverside bossa nova singer Jules Day, who now lives in Paris, has had the “horrifying” experience of fleeing a stampeding crowd and living with increased bomb scares and heightened security since last week’s terrorist attacks.

The 30-year-old singer/songwriter said by phone Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 17, that people have been on edge in the French capital since Friday night, when terrorists fanned across the city, killing 129 people and wounding at least 350 at a concert hall, soccer stadium, cafes and other places.

She was nearly caught in a stampede Sunday evening when fireworks exploded in at least two places in the center of Paris, including near the Rue de Rivoli close to her home.

Day had stepped out to buy a sandwich and walk the dog – the first time she’d gone out since the attacks – when she heard a commotion and saw about 50 people running down a narrow street toward her from underground shops known as Les Halles, the scene of one attack two days earlier.

Her stomach dropped as she and another woman fled into a restaurant where they told the staff to lock the doors.

“We said, ‘Close the door. Everybody’s running but we don’t know from what,’” she said. “I thought maybe they were running from gunmen or maybe an explosion again.”

That “horrifying” experience made an attack that already felt personal become even more so, she said.

Day moved to Southern California in 2003 after growing up in Minneapolis. She lived in Corona about six years and then in Riverside about three years. She performed at Los Angeles clubs, Temecula-area wineries and Riverside hot spots.

Three years ago, Day traded a microphone at Mario’s Place in downtown Riverside for stages in small Paris jazz clubs.

She was at home, just falling asleep Friday night when the attacks began. She lives within walking distance of the Bataclan theater and Les Halles – two of the places where terrorists’ gunfire broke out that night.

Yet Day didn’t know anything had happened until friends and family began texting her from all over the world to see if she was OK.

Then the sirens started.

Day came across two bomb scares while walking Monday, one on the subway and one down a Parisian street. Still, she feels safer with increased security officers visible in the streets. The city’s mood seems to lighten with each day, she said.

She has traveled throughout Europe, singing in Rome and Tuscany, and has found it easier to make money musically in a live-music setting in Paris, where jazz clubs and other music venues are full of people, than Southern California. She loves the city and has no plans to leave following the terrorist attacks.

The massacre of people at the Bataclan concert hall, the stadium, cafes and elsewhere give those in the city a new awareness that didn’t come after the Islamic terrorists’ attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris in January, Day added.

“What made this one different is these people were random,” she said. “They were just innocently eating dinner at a restaurant or going to a concert. In other words, this time there was a sense of, ‘That could have been me.’”

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